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1
obert Coles
Psychiatrist seeks moral base in work
as he travels, writes on social change
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By KIMSERLY McGUIRE
Robert Coles has taken the psychiatric
profession out of the plush suburbs and
Into the homes of the rural South,
j Child psychiatrist Coles came to Chapel
'H ill to receive an honorary degree at the
graduation ceremony May 13 for his work
in and writings on the South. He has
Worked with children of varied social and
economic backgrounds all over the
country.
experiences during the '60s living with
families; involved in the civil rights and
migrantifarm work struggles, in addition to
poor families in Appalachia.
Now Coles has written over 25 books,
and he $erves on advisory boards around
the natibn as the foremost consultant on
children; and families and response to
social change.
In an interview before the presentation.
,Co!es talked about his motives and his .
Aork.
) He said he considered himself a religious
Jn'ait- and he -was looking for a way to
"enforce his ethics in his practice. He was
determined to do something that might
make a difference.
J "It's a gift to have a profession Coles
said of his training in psychiatry. "But
there's also an obligation, the need to look
'at one's work in some sense as morally
important. .
PROPERTY OF THE RICH
He is wary of over-analysis and the
entire field of psychology. "For the most
part, we are the property of the rich. My
profession ought to be working with those
who have real problems instead of just
Ahose in Beverly Hills who can buy their
'time" Coles said sharply. "Psychiatrists
ought to help the troubled people, those
'children in need, regardless of the race or
;creed."
He quickly became enchanted with the
people of Mississippi when he was
stationed there with the military in 1958.
He began to study the black children of the
Delta area and their reactions to the racial
struggle that was just beginning to mount.
His Children of Crisis series, which won
the Pulitzer Prize, documents his
'
Robert Coles
PERCY AS A SPIRITUAL COMRADE
It was the influence of Walker Percy, a
Southern writer and UNC graduate, that
convinced Coles to stay in the South and
get to know the region, its families and the
workings of its communities.
"I was floundering badly when 1 started
reading some of Walker Percy's essays in
the late '50s. I saw the similarities. He is a
doctor who's become a writer with the
same kind of religious and philosophical
concerns. Of course 1 don't have his
talents," Coles said of Percy, the novelist
(The Moviegoer, Love in the Ruins and
two others). "He works in a better medium.
Since I can't write fiction, I go and talk to
people and they tell me their factual
stories.''
In different ways, "we are both asking
the same questions and trying to figure out
what this life is all about," Coles said.
Percy's "novels of ideas" are based on
Christian existential philosophy and set in
the Deep South. They are stories woven
with the notion of fading tradition, racial
controversy and the moral fabric of Old
South values.
Coles looked for these qualities when he
was getting to know the people and
especially the children of the region. He
wrote: "I have relied upon Dr. Percy's ideas
. constantly. ,.to the point that I can scarcely
imagine how I would have thought about
either my own life or the lives of the
children, parents, teachers, I have met,
were he to have decided lpng ago, to keep
his important and instructive thoughts to
himselff
THE CHANGING SOUTH
Coles chose his words carefully as he
talked about the virtues of the South. "The
values of a rural region emphasize family
life and community. There's a kind of oral
tradition of good talk that's very real. And
there's a friendliness here, a more
' manageable kind of existence. I also like
the fact that religion is still very important
here," Coles said.
After the Crisis series, Coles followed in
1972 with Farewell to the South in which
he predicted "the death of the Old South
and its traditions and customs." He saw the
New South coming and along with it the
loss of the sense of place he so often
described. For the purposes of that book,
Coles went back and talked with the
families he had come to know and write
about, and they told him of the changes.
"The New South has brought commerce
and jobs, but for a price. I can see the
fragmentation and loss of kin through
distance. Anything that threatens that
community in the name of money is sad,"
Coles said, "It's hard to make sense of it,
seeing the pluses and the minuses."
A VISITOR AND FRIEND
TO NORTH CAROLINA
He said he's not sure the original values .
are lost now, as he predicted in the early
'70s, adding, "I may be mistaken, 1 would
like to be mistaken." Instead of a Sunbelt
transformation of the region, Coles sees a
mixture of new trends and tradition.
"The narcissism that has taken over the
country hasn't hit the South yet and that'sa
virtue of lagging behind. I hope for a
mixture of the Old South and the Newi
There can be jobs for people- and also
human dignity, and an end to racial -discrimination
along with the virtues of th i:
Old South religious concerns, a strong;
family life and emphasis on community,"
Coles said.
"I'm no stranger to this area," he stated.
"I come down four times a year to teach a
course at Duke in Ethics and Public ;
Policy." Cole's home now is in Boston1
where he teaches and does research at
Harvard University when not writing. "I
consider myself a visitor and friend in the
South," he said. In this way he has felt the
changes.
A PROLIFIC WRITER
. Coles' research in the South ended years .
ago, and he has lived and worked in many
other cultures since then. He is responsible
for more than 500 articles in addition to his
books. This work has been made possible
through private foundation grants. His
most recent book is Walker Percy: An
American Search and it discusses his
writings and "philosophical bearings."
RESEARCH AND "THE SEARCH"
Coles' book on Percy represents an
interpretation of his own ideas, in a sense.
It seems he has come full circle, back to
Percy and the seed of his own serious
commitment to making what he terms a
"moral connection" between his life and
work.
But Coles continues his search as he
plans to visit Belfast, Ireland, this summer
to get to know the children there. He will
take along his wife and children, as is his
practice, and they will live with a family
and get to know the community. Coles
calls this an observer-participant approach
to documentary.
Amid the turmoil in Northern Ireland,
Coles will listen and watch and let a child
tell the story. One small hope or fear
communicated might touch someone
much later through his writings. This is
Coles' method. And so the connection
,the human emotions and reactions we all
share. Robert Coles reminds us of this.
Alex Harris
IS
C '
A
r
Coles is "hooded" . . . receiving
honorary degree at graduation
Photographer's vision shows
people, cultures in transition
By KIMBERLY McGUIRE
Alex Harris has been called a pioneer in the field of
photography.
His photographic talent was discovered by Robert Coles
in 1972 at a Morehead planetarium gallery exhibit here.
Harris was showing his first photographs of the people he
had met while studying housing in rural North Carolina.
Back then, Georgia native Harris was 22 and fresh out of
Yale where he studied photography under Walker Evans.
Now 29, he divides his time between his own photography
and teaching the documentary method at Duke and, for the
first time this spring, at UNC.
As he reflected on his past, Harris spoke softly and slowly.
His eyes told most of the story and it became obvious that he
was more of a watcher and listener than a talker.
In his work he made his observations through the camera
lens, and - in the resulting portraits Harris tried to
communicate his vision of community in America.
"I had a one year grant in North Carolina and I was.
photographing the same kinds of families Coles was writing
about in his Children of Crisis series," Harris said. "It was
this early work in the rural South that was the foundation for
my fascination with the people and the culture more than
just making pretty images. But I never knew that what I was
doing was anything different or valuable really."
After seeing his work. Coles invited Harris to travel with
him to New Mexico and Alaska under Ford Foundation
grants. As a writer-photographer team, they recorded their
impressions of those unusual cultures. It was the first time
. Coles had ever worked with someone on his visits he
usually worked alone and supplemented hif text with
pictures taken separately. The co-authors' common
sensitivities were revealed in-their books, The Old Ones of
New Mexico and The Last and First Eskimos.
"I had the excuse to look and listen and travel," Harris
said. "I watched the process of change from the old, more
established ways of life to what's going on now."
. Harris was more than just a photographer. His method
stressed the importance of getting to know the people of a
community.
"Part of me wanted to become it 1 wanted to put down
my camera and go hunting with people. But the frustrating
part is that you couldn't and you had to accept that you
vji ' .?;-'
Alex Harris and friends in Alaska
would always be an observer. The camera makes that
distance," he said.
Coles wrote about how Harris overcame that problem in
his introduction to The Old Ones: "The photographs
represent his own attempt to do justice to and become a
friend of the people he has met a visitor anticipated and
welcomed, in spite of all the amusing and puzzling
equipment he necessarily has to bring along."
One special aspect of Harris' approach was giving people
prints of the pictures he took of them.
"I teach this in my classes," he said. "The students go into a
community to photograph and for the first few weeks they
might feel like outsiders, even experience some hostility. As
they get to know the people and bring back their portraits,
their attitudes change." Most of the people in these cultures
have never had pictures of themselves and so it was a kind of
gift, he added.
Though he has become established on his own, Harris
hasn't forgotten the early days. "I owe so much to Coles for
giving me the respectability to make this commitment to my
work. And looking back, the thing that all this makes me
realize is that there's a time in everyone's career, whether
you're a writer or an artist or whatever, when you don't have
much confidence in yourself. Then there are the people who
encourage you or pat you on the back and that makes the
difference."
Harris has finished his semester's work at Duke and UNC
He is heading west, back to New Mexico, to spend a year
doing a photographic illustration of a rural farming
community.
This spring he received a Guggenheim grant, the highest
award for which an artist can hope, that will fund his efforts
there.
Diligence, dedication spell
success for Ozark community
From page 1
At commencement he's oil heart
Orr's "project" is two-fold.
"First is the. physical design of the
community," Orr said. "In the housing, we will
link up all the individual systems to make them
environmentally sound and ensure self-reliance.
This means growing food on site, building solar
heating into homes and composting refuse from
the toilets so we won't use water. We're looking
for a windmill expert so we can generate our own
electricity."
The other major component of Homestead
Village will be the creation of an environmental
learning center, according to Orr.
"This will reflect my experience in dealing with
environmental issues and my time spent in
academia," Orr said. "We will provide a place for
conferences, a library area and also an individual
internship program where students of all ages
can come and work with someone who, for
example, builds solar greenhouses."
He described the relationship between the
community and the learning center as reciprocal
in a proposal titled Education for a Sustainable
Society.
"The community will provide physical support
in terms of labor and food," Orr wrote, "while
the center will conduct the learning program,
coordinate and plan research and seek out grants
and funding. But there will be no hard and fast
line between the community and the center, vso
that everyone will be encouraged to particapte in
all activities."
Orr said he plans to tap the resources of "the
environmental movement, the alternative
technology movement and the back-to-the-land
movement."
The ultimate size of H omestead Village will be
1 00 to 1 20 permanent residents, Orr said, adding,
"To start, this summer we will have 13 people for
sure." A former UNC graduate student of Orr's
will accompany him in addition to Orr's family,
his brother and his brother's family. Orr said
Wilson is the one with the practical sense. "He
has sold his contracting business in Arizona to
join the project. He will head the building and
business ends in Arkansas," Orr said. "I'm the
one more responsible for the ideas and I'm more
knowledgeable about environmental problems. I
will also function in drawing people in the field
together;"
Construction will begin in July and the
community "will grow at the rate we make it
grow, as people come in and want to stay." Orr
said.
Currently Orr has heard from more than 200
people interested in joining the Homestead
Village community. He said he envisions three
kinds of involvement in the project.
"There will be the core of permanent residents
and the residents who aren't permanent, but are
involved in some way with the learning center.
The third type of person would not be a resident,
but would participate in an advisory capacity,"
Orr said. Ideally, each person should bring a
different "tool" to Homestead Village, according
to Orr.
The project will be directed by an advisory
board which, Orr said, "will consist of who's who
in this field from around the country and
Europe."
Interest has been high so far, as evidenced bv
the strong financial base that the Orr brothers
established from private contributors and their
own assets.
"People are interested in us because we are the
first to try to pull all this together. There are
small projects that do bits and pieces, but
environmental communities in the past haven't
made it economical. And too many of those
communities are labeled as drop-outs," Orr said.
"The last thing I'm going to do is drop out."
Orr's thinking has changed since 1973 when he
proposed an "environmental think tank" to work
out of Washington and address the critical
problems of limited natural resources and energy
from within the bureaucracy. After a seminar
with U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, Rep.
Morris Udall ad other officials, Orr said, he
began to do something on his own.
"It is time to create small demonstration
centers to teach ecological concepts and their
manifestation," Orr wrote in a brochure defining
the purpose of Homestead Village. He beleives
that it is both irresponsible and futile to wait for
present large scale institutions of government,
business and academia to resolve the crisis.
"Our idea is to build a small community as a
demonstration to see what can be done," Orr
said.
David Orr
!
12 i The Summer lar Heel I hursdav. Mav 24. 1979
Thursday. May 24. 1979 ; The Summer Tar Heel 13